Toe to Toe
by meganarcissa
Summary: Tahno and Korra's first meeting - from Tahno's perspective. K for Tahno's not-so-clean mouth. Tahnorra.


"…Tahno? Are you even listening to me?"

Oops. No. I'd been tuning out the girl on my left me in the noodle booth for the past fifteen minutes. Did she really expect me to be listening to her endless ramblings about her family's vacation? Instead my eyes had been wandering around the restaurant and managed to settle on a couple sitting a few tables over. All the time my…_companions_ had been complaining about why I picked this place (Did I want them to get fat? Surely I knew how many calories were in this broth!), the girl over there had been stuffing her meal down her throat like she didn't care who was watching. It was refreshing, to say the least, and I eyed her amusedly.

"Of course I am…baby." Shit. What was her name again? I think it started with a B…

The girl on my right rolled her eyes. "You're boring him. He probably wants to talk to me."

Girl Number One shot daggers (yeah, okay, I'll call her Daggers) over at Girl Number Two and turned back to me. "I was trying to tell you that I think those two over there are members of the Fire-Ferrets."

What? I glanced back at the far-off table. Was it really…? Ah, yes, it was. I recognized them now. The big guy, with the puggish nose, his name was…Bowling? Something along those lines. So the girl must be -

"…Korra. And just _look_ at her hair. It's like she wakes up and then combs it into a rug."

Korra. Right. I remembered that. Korra. I sort of liked the way it sounded. I'd never known anyone with that name before.

"You see the way she's eating? She looks like pig."

The table looked at Korra taking in another chopstick-ful of noodles and snickered simultaneously.

"Don't all look at once…!" But it was too late. Korra had seen us looking, and now she cocked her head and turned to ask her teammate something. Shit. Shit. Now that she knew I was here, I couldn't just ignore her. That would look cowardly. I'd have to go challenge her. But I really just wanted to eat in peace…

Now she turned and glared directly at me. Guess Bolo over there hadn't been telling her about how charming I was.

Fine, Avatar. If that's how you want it.

I put on a grin and then turned to my followers. "Hey, come on. Let's go rough her up a bit."

"But I thought we were - "

"No one cares about your vacation, Noka. Tahno wants to go talk to the Avatar."

Noka. Right. Noka glared at Girl Number Two and stood with a huff, grabbing my arm and turning away from her friend.

I guided them smoothly to the table. This would be a nice chance to get into their heads, at least. And it was undeniably more interesting than listening to Noka's girlish drone.

I saw the big guy say a couple of frantic words to Korra before ducking his head practically into his bowl when I arrived next to his seat, as if I wouldn't see him if he buried his face in his dinner. Korra, on the other hand, kept her eyes on me furiously.

"Well, well, well," I murmured, deciding on the spot that yes, insults were always best, "if it isn't the Fire-Ferrets. Pro-bending's saddest excuse for a team. Tell me, how'd a couple of amateurs like you luck your way into the tournament?" Polin was _still_ trying to act like he wasn't there, so I turned to Korra. "Especially you, Avatar."

She simply snorted at me in response, so I decided to lay it on even thicker. Leaning in close, I practically whispered, "You know, if you'd like to know how a real pro bends, I could give you some…" Wait for it. Wait for it. "…_private lessons_."

The plan was for her to gasp at my forwardness. I mean isn't that what girls do? Freak out? But instead she stood up out of her chair and leaned in so that our faces were nearly touching. I hadn't expected that, not at all, and our sudden closeness made me…uncomfortable.

"You wanna go toe-to-toe with me, pretty boy?" she growled. Pretty boy. Hm. I actually quite liked that. I could get used to that. Especially the way she said it, letting her voice trail up at the end and giving it a slightly melodic edge.

"Go for it," I told her. Spirits, this was better than noodles. "I'll give you the first shot."

Her teammate was whispering something to her now, but I don't think either of us took in what he was saying. She just kept her eyes on me like if she scowled enough she could pierce my skull.

For a few moments neither of us blinked. Her aqua, stormy eyes bore into mine lividly, and with this proximity I could actually smell her - some weird mix of salt and something animalistic, like a dog or a bear or something.

Before I could think of something else to rile her up, she raised her hand. I thought she was going to slap me across the face - a shame, since if she hit me she'd be out of the competition and I'd miss a good fight.

But instead she pressed two fingers to her lips and whistled.

Why - FUCK. FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

HER BEAR-WOLD THINGIE BURST ITS HEAD THROUGH THE WINDOW AND GROWLED RIGHT IN MY FACE. HOLY CRAP.

I _leapt_ backwards with a scream that was certainly not very masculine. God_damn_ her, setting that - that _thing _on me. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest, so the best I could do to manage a smooth exit was to gesture to my companions to follow me, hoping none of them would notice I was hyperventilating.

Fine, Avatar. You win this time.

Thankfully, no one mentioned the incident when we were finally outside of the restaurant and my heart rate was returning to normal. The girls _did_ attempt to comfort me a little, but when I shrugged them off they started gossiping among themselves. Good. I reeeeally didn't need them right now.

"What a freak. Walking around with that hideous thing? And did you see her date? Such a loser."

Freak indeed. Avatar or not, Korra was a _girl_, and girls are supposed to grovel at my feet. That's what they do. They're NOT supposed to meet my bluff, and they are CERTAINLY not supposed to set their pets on me. But I had a feeling Korra did a lot of things differently than normal girls.

I…I had to say I sort of liked it. The way she wasn't going to get pushed around. She wasn't my type, of course, but maybe she should be. Someone who'd turn the tables on me and make _me_ grovel, for once. And she certainly wasn't ugly.

Maybe if we weren't enemies. Maybe if I didn't have this reputation to uphold. Maybe…

"Did you hear me Tahno? We're headed to Noka's for some better food."

_Stupid_, I told myself. _You've got all the girls you want. You don't need Korra. You don't want her._

And I believed that. For a really long time.


End file.
